About

REALTY TRENDS
The project was to design a property price trend research platform for 99acres.com

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Realty trends

Information and User Interface Design.

The project was to design a property price trend research platform for 99acres.com, which provides the user about past & current price trends with a heat map. This web GUI platform also provides the information about the future development plans across India, which would help the user to take better decisions on what kind of property to invest, where to buy, when to sell, and other research needs.

This informative GUI platform, providing maps and graphs shown at the same time, is customisable by the user according to their various real estate research needs; so that the user will get the proper information about the exact location. The user also can directly interact with the map which enhances the user experience. The final deliverable was the interactive prototype of realty price trend along with the documentation of work processes.

ABOUT GUIDE

Prof. Rupesh Vyas was guided me for this project. He is a Senior Faculty in Communication Design, Activity Chairperson Online Programmes at NID. In the recent past he has been Head of Information Technology & Coordinator of Graphic Design.He takes lead role in developing Information & Interaction Design as emerging domain under Communication Design & IT Integrated Design Disciplines at NID. He is a Board Member of International Institute of Information Design (IIID) which is based in Vienna, Austria.

MY TEAM

The project involved a product team and a UI team. The product team focused on the content and features of the product, and the UI team on the user flows and look and feel of the product.

OVERVIEW OF INDIANREAL ESTATE SECTOR

The real estate sector is a critical sector of our economy. It is the second largest employment generating sector after agriculture. Growing at a rate of about 20% per annum, this sector has been contributing about 5-6% to India’s GDP. Not only does it generate a high level of direct employment, but it also stimulates the demand in over 250 ancillary industries such as cement, steel, paint, brick, building materials, consumer durables and so on.

The Indian real estate industry has been on a roller coaster ride since 2005. Consequent to the government’s policy to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector, there was a boom in investment and developmental activities. The sector not only witnessed the entry of many new domestic realty players but also the arrival of many foreign real estate investment companies including private equity funds, pension funds and development companies entered the sector lured by the high returns on investments. The real estate sector has been riding through many highs and lows since then. The industry achieved new heights during 2007 and early 2008, characterised by a growth in demand, substantial development and increased foreign investments. However, by mid 2008, the effects of the global economic slowdown were evident here too, and the industry took a ‘U’ turn. FDI inflow into real estate dropped significantly and what had emerged as one of the most promising markets for foreign investments experienced a downturn.

NEED FOR DESIGN

The realty sector in India lack transparency and is dominantly handled by brokers and dealers. They put the customers into confusion during their property search. Currently, when the seekers look at buying or renting of property, they do not have any credible third party source to update them on the going rate in the identified city or locality. This information is generally gathered from friends and relatives, leaving scope for an error. A research platform is needed for the user to know about past, current and future price trends with various locations. This would help the user to take better decisions on what & where to buy, when to sell and other research needs.

REALTY PRICE TREND

Realty price trend shows the direction of the sales & rent price of realty properties, such as land, villas, and builder floors. Price trend is usually shown on the basis of monthly or quarterly data.

Realty price trend helps the users to understand the evolving trends in the real estate market. Identifying and predicting trends are important in finding the right moment to buy and sell. It helps the users to know the actual price in the market, which helps them while taking decisions. The realty price trend helps to increase the confidence in users by providing them with reliable & authentic data. It also saves the valuable time of users by avoiding random property search.

TARGET GROUP

There are mainly three groups involved in the real estate sector: Buyers, sellers and brokers. The target group is set as investors, such as first time buyers for their living purpose and second time buyers those who are looking for an investment. This group normally has less knowledge about the realty sector. So the price trend section would make them aware about real estate sector’s various trends.

USER PERSONAS

User personas was made for the realty price trend, considering different user categories of investors. All scenarios represent these different categories. This would help to understand the overall border view of target users and their needs, which would help to design the realty price trend concept.